| Time-Gate | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | John Hollis |
| Publisher(s) | Quicksilva |
| Platform(s) | ZX Spectrum |
| Release | 1982 [1] |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Time-Gate (also known as Timegate, 4D Time-Gate or 4D Defender) is a ZX Spectrum game from Quicksilva, and one of the first 3D combat games.[ citation needed ] The name is derived from its treatment of time as a dimension, in which one could travel (albeit backwards only). The first press launch in the UK games industry was for this title. [2]
Time-Gate had one embarking on a perilous mission to repel the Squarm invaders who have conquered Earth, by fighting through hordes of same, thus finding and locating the time-gates (hence the name) and using the gates to travel back through time to an earlier era, where one fought through more Squarm to find another gate. Eventually, if one hadn’t been killed by the enemy, one got back to the year before the Squarm invaded, located their home planet, and locked onto it with one’s meson RAM (48K), thereby destroying it and retroactively preventing its inhabitants from ever having invaded in the first place.
Time-Gate, due to its intense use of machine-code-driven sound, placed more stress on the Spectrum's sound capabilities than previous games, [3] and thereby inadvertently revealed a design flaw in early machines, whereby the Time-Gate sound effects would crash those machines. This resulted in some people buying the game to stress-test their Spectrums[ citation needed ].
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. Considered one of the most influential computers ever made, it is also one of the best-selling British computers ever, with over five million units sold. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and around the world in the following years, most notably in Europe, the United States, and Eastern Bloc countries.
Jeff Minter is an English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games for the ZX80. Minter's games are shoot 'em ups which contain titular or in-game references demonstrating his fondness of ruminants. Many of his programs also feature something of a psychedelic element, as in some of the earliest "light synthesizer" programs including Trip-a-Tron.
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Artic Computing was a software development company based in Brandesburton, England from 1980 to 1986. The company's first games were for the Sinclair ZX81 home computer, but they expanded and were also responsible for various ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Amstrad CPC computer games. The company was set up by Richard Turner and Chris Thornton. Charles Cecil, who later founded Revolution Software, joined the company shortly after it was founded, writing Adventures B through D. Developer Jon Ritman produced a number of ZX81 and Spectrum games for Artic before moving to Ocean Software.
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Back to the Future Part II is a 1990 action game based on the 1989 film of the same name. It was developed and published by Image Works for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Master System, and ZX Spectrum. The game has five levels based on scenes from the film, and was criticized as a poor conversion of the film. It was followed by Back to the Future Part III.
Francisco "Paco" Menéndez (1965–1999) was a Spanish computer game programmer who wrote games for 8-bit computers. His most famous work is La abadía del crimen which is regarded as one of the best games made for the ZX Spectrum.
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Mined-Out is a maze video game created by Ian Andrew originally for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1983. The objective is to carefully navigate a series of grid-shaped minefields by moving from the bottom to the top of the screen. The number of invisible mines in spaces adjacent to the player's current position is shown but not their precise location, requiring deduction to advance past them and avoid getting blown up. Additional challenges are introduced in later stages.
Automonopoli, also known as Go to Jail, is an unauthorised computer version of the boardgame Monopoly, released in June 1983 by Automata UK for the ZX Spectrum. Although other two-player Monopoly computer programs already existed, the developer advertised that their Automonopoli was the first with an artificial intelligence strong enough to compete against and defeat human players.
Yabba Dabba Doo! is a 1986 video game developed by British studio Taskset and published by Quicksilva for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 (C64), and ZX Spectrum. It is based on the television series The Flintstones and is the first Flintstones video game.
ZX Spectrum Next is an 8-bit home computer, initially released in 2017, which is compatible with software and hardware for the 1982 ZX Spectrum. It also has enhanced capabilities. It is intended to appeal to retrocomputing enthusiasts and to "encourage a new generation of bedroom coders", according to project member Jim Bagley.
Mevlüt Dinç, better known as Mev Dinc, is a Turkish-British video game designer. Born and raised in Turkey, he moved to England in 1979 while finishing his studies, intending to pursue a master's degree there. Unable to pay the high tuition fees for international students, Dinc worked in a cable factory in Southampton, where a colleague introduced him to video games and got him a ZX Spectrum when it was released in 1982. Dinc taught himself to program via magazines and began working in the video game industry in 1983, starting with assisting on the Commodore 64 conversion of Ant Attack, released in 1984. After his first original game, Gerry the Germ Goes Body Poppin', in 1985, he worked with Electric Dreams Software on another original game, Prodigy, the Amstrad CPC port of Enduro Racer, and various tie-ins with films and TV series.
